Parcheesi, anyone? This gameboard fetched $11,000.
Onview.com Reports Some $1 Million in Sales over Two Weeks
NEW YORK CITY – Onview.com, an e-commerce site and portal specializing in fine art, announced on October 13 that it made the largest private sale ever of fine art by an Internet company. The firm reports the price eclipses the previous recorded auction high by approximately 200 percent, based on available price information for Artnet.com’s reported top lot of $168,000 and Sothebys.com’s reported top lot of $79,750.
The work, by Milton Avery, was sold by a dealer to a private collector for $565,000. In addition, the company announced that it has rung up over one million dollars in sales in the past two weeks alone.
“We are delighted with the progress we’ve made in just six months, especially the high transaction value and rapidly swelling ranks of registered users and customers,” Stephen Ketchum, the firm’s CEO, stated. “This is even more gratifying given the consolidation we’re seeing throughout our industry.”
Ketchum points to diversified marketing tactics, such as the recent partnership with Mail.com; launch of “The Trade Network,” whereby decorators, designers, architects and dealers receive access to Onview.com’s inventory at discounted prices; and the acquisition of New York City fine print dealer and publisher Brooke Alexander Editions, which gives the company an offline presence.
Ketchum adds that the firm’s recruitment of individuals from both the art and Internet worlds – such as the recent appointment of Michelle Quinn, who ran the print department at Christie’s East, as Director of Brooke Alexander Editions – also aided Onview.com’s success.
From March through July, the average price per work sold on the site was nearly $5,000, and the average transaction exceeded $7,000 – 1.2 rdf_Descriptions per transaction. A Nineteenth Century American Maritime painting was also sold previously at Onview.com for $175,000, and of two vintage photographs offered in the past, one sold for $138,000 and the other for $160,000, the latter being an important Steichen vintage photograph
